Junior Cert English Papers 1 and 2: A holiday atmosphere brightened up the pages of the Junior Certificate English honours paper yesterday. The exam opened with a passage describing Kate Thompson's memories of camping with her intrepid parents and followed with a personal writing option inviting students to write about the best or worst holiday they had experienced. This was a popular choice among students, as was the option to write about "A Case of Mistaken Identity".
Another essay title on the higher paper gave students the opportunity to write modern takes on fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood or The Emperor's New Clothes.
"The students of Skerries Community College were very happy with the choice of essays on the morning's paper," said teacher and skoool.ie subject representative Philip Campion. "While most students went for one of the first two options some strong students enjoyed the imaginative challenge of rewriting classic fairytales for a modern reader."
According to Anne-Marie Gormley of Laurel Hill Coláiste in Limerick her Junior Cert higher students were thrown by four questions on the reading section of the morning paper but maintained they were manageable nevertheless. "The functional writing exercise was also unpredictable given that they had no other option but to answer two questions on a photograph. Students expecting exercises on letters or speeches were thrown," said Ms Gormley.
Students of ordinary level English had an "unfortunate" start to the exams when they were met with an essay question asking them to describe a journey on a school bus. "There was no malign intent on the part of the questions setters," commented George O'Callaghan of the Joint Managerial Body. "These papers would have been printed up to five months ago. We were dealing with an unforeseen tragedy; without that tragedy that question would seem very ordinary and benign." However, Mr O'Callaghan said that lessons could be learned for the future about the need to recheck the questions prior to the exams.
The morning's paper was otherwise fair, tending towards over simplification in some of the later questions. About half of the students at Scoil Daire in Kilcock found the afternoon's higher paper difficult, according to TUI representative Bill Ryan. "The unseen drama extracts were challenging and many students were surprised," he explained. However, the questions on prescribed texts were very manageable. The foundation paper was described by students as being of a higher standard than usual. Overall Mr Ryan contends that the students had an easy start to the exams.
